Saturday, August 28, 2010

"Why I Will Be There"

Dr. Alveda King, Dr Martin Luther King's niece, on why she will be speaking at the Glen Beck rally, today.

33 comments:

  1. The article by Dr. Alveda King is wonderful. I admire and respect Alveda King; she's MY tribe. As her father and her uncle were giants in their time, I hope Alveda is a giant in our time.

    Even if you think Beck is a money-hungry charlatan, he has drawn many good people to his side, people who have met him and talked with him privately, at length. He keeps good company.

    I thought seriously about driving to DC for this event. Beck's message of "back to the basics" resounds with me. I even (occasionally) sit through his "sermons", because I think he's touching on something so fundamental and so vital that it can't be ignored or shouted down.

    Okay, I'm gonna go cling to my religion and my guns now. I don't have much of the first, but I have plenty of the latter. Heh. ;)

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  2. What are the odds that the Parks Service would have silenced a group of people singing "Give Peace a Chance?"

    I would not be surprised if the government has lawyers going over rules with fine tooth combs to be sure that there is a fall-back position so they can say "We are not denying freedom of speech, it's just that the sound of people singing disturbs young spotted owls" or something.

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  3. For anyone who is interested, C-Span is broadcasting the rally live. Malkin is reporting a couple hundred thousand people have peaceably assembled.

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  4. Lots and lots of old-fashioned Christian preachin', so far. I wonder if the whole thing is gonna be a giant revival? :-/

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  5. I watched it from my laptop via Livestation. for a few hours I was home again.

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  6. Pamela, what did you think?

    I ended up turning it off. I'm happy if his efforts rallied the conservative Christians, but honestly, I didn't watch it to be converted. I was looking more for the generic "restore honor" theme.

    Those people hanging their hat on the Tea Party peg are not all Christian. There are many faiths, there are agnostics, and I'm sure there are atheists.

    Questions of the day: Will Beck's Christian bible-thumping split the Tea Party into factions? Will it turn some people cold, causing them to abandon the Tea Party? OR... will politics make strange bedfellows?

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  7. Here's a surprisingly even-handed article about the rally from the New York Times. Says they: "Officials do not make crowd estimates because they are unreliable and can be controversial, but event organizers put the number of attendees at 500,000; NBC News said it was closer to 300,000, but by any measure it was a large turnout. The crowd stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument."

    Wow. I had no idea that many people attended! The first accounts I read yesterday from NBC said that "scores" of people attended.  Oopsie!

    Meanwhile, at Al Sharpton's little shindig: "Across town, several hundred people packed a football field at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School to stage a rally commemorating Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech."

    So sad, Al. It's obvious that pretty much EVERYONE is sick of your race-baiting.

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  8. imgw:"http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/redhawkclan/beckrally.jpg"

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  9. HuffPo headline:

    "BECK HAS A DREAM: Tens Of Thousands Attend Beck's Rally, Civil Rights Leaders Protest"

    LOL! They can't count either. =))

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  10. Lady I thought it was very good, and yes Beck tends to be preachy. I guess I am desensitized to it since my Dad is very preachy. I wanted to see Alveda King and Sarah Palin. I was not disappointed in either of them. I found a few other speakers to be an inspiration like the Vietnam vet at the end.

    It was great to see a rally where they didn't trash the place after it was all done.

    Yes MSM there were lots of white people, but white people are Americans too. It was refreshing not to see signs and protest crapola. It was heartwarming that our troops were so honored at the event. That got to me the most and made the event for me.

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  11. I try to watch his show whenever I can, I think he's great. He gets emotional but so what?

    I'm sick to death of people vilifying him simply because he expresses a different viewpoint. I wonder how many people who trash him has actually watched him? He is very funny and unabashedly loves this country.

    I watched segments of the rally, it seemed like a great gathering, very inspiring. I wish we could have gone.

    Did anyone else catch Rev Al's sour puss after Dr. Alveda King got the last word this morning on a FNC panel discussing the rally? LOL

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  12. I'm not a member of any religion and I agree that the mood was "revivalist" but I also think that we must return to our Judeo-Christian values if this country will survive as a place that's worth living in and defending. Not bible-thumping but a belief in a higher power, personal responsibility, respect for others, service to those in need (whether through charity, volunteering, whatever) tight family bonds, etc., etc.

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  13. I went down to see my son yesterday in Seattle (had a great time). When he was taking me back to the airport, the subject of politics came up. He was talking about how bad capitalism is. I asked him what was better -- he said, "nothing."

    He is young and still has the belief that something has to be perfect for him to stand behind it. He'll learn.

    He did say that he thought man was a savage animal who is only interested in raping and pilaging and is inherently immoral. I bit my tounge, but I wanted to suggest to him him that he explore his Judeo-Christian heritage (directly -- he was raised Jewish until his mother got bored with it, after which I steared him towards Catholocism). Hopefully he will mellow out.

    On the subject of Beck, et al: I have noticed that the left seems to expect that leaders on the right take a vow of poverty. Liberals always seem to have a problem with the fact that Beck and Limbaugh have become rich doing what they are doing. Funny thing is, Beck and Limbaugh do not mandate that people become followers. Beck and Limbaugh do not bribe people into becoming followers. People become followers of Beck and Limbaugh because Beck and Limbaugh strike a chord with people. Free choice -- and the left does not like that.

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  14. "People become followers of Beck and Limbaugh because Beck and Limbaugh strike a chord with people. Free choice -- and the left does not like that."

    Oh, No! It's all astro-turfed! Not like the supporters of the left who show up by the hundreds on busses with carefully drawn & professionally printed signs.

    I am sure Speaker Pelosi (pbuh) will soon righteously (wait, is that a religious word?) call for an investigation into their finances.

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  15. #12 florrie: Yes, yes, and yes.

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  16. RadioMattM: Is your son college-aged? Hopefully he'll grow and learn. I don't think I had quite the same attitude, but I was quite oblivious to all things political through my college years.

    I didn't sit up and pay attention until 9/11.

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  17. He is 24. I think he will wise up and mellow out.

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  18. Yeah, he's still a young lad. The years will help him.

    A few good nudges along the way can't hurt though : P

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  19. lady red: Questions of the day: Will Beck's Christian bible-thumping split the Tea Party into factions?

    They are already in factions - have always been.

    This is not a bad thing as long as the factions can avoid being split and distracted by the current failed set of political, financial and media elites.

    Which they will inevitably try to do.

    What else will happen: the current pols will try to co-opt Tea Party issues.

    I'm seeing lots of ads for Ron Wyden (D-OR) aimed at people with TP leanings ("Voted against bank bailout" etc). LOL. Whatever.

    I either like or could live with most of the Contract From America - but it's just too complicated.

    If the Tea Party is going to have a "platform" it needs to fit in 3 bullets on one Powerpoint slide.

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  20. Lewy: If the Tea Party is going to have a "platform" it needs to fit in 3 bullets on one Powerpoint slide.

    Absolutely. Simple and to the point, no fluff.

    I too ditto florrie's #12. Great comment.

    Matt, my son didn't mature until he married and had a little one of his own to provide for. He still wears tie dye and sandals, but now he wears his hair buzzed, has worked for the same employer for years, and has a very lucrative side-business making tie dye apparel. Heh heh. No more lefty rhetoric, and a healthy respect for the hard-earned dollar...

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  21. "LOL! They can't count either."

    Not only can't, but don't.

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  22. Yes, DWT, I think "don't" is more accurate. It's selective reporting: only providing the convenient facts, and making up the rest.

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  23. I finally saw a (short & up-close) video of Sharptons March-To-Not-See-Reality.

    I think there may actually have been more black Americans at Becks rally than Sharptons march

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  24. Wow. Good for Dr. King! My greatest hope in all of this is that as people speak up, more people will find the courage to say what they think too, that we'll find that commonality before it's too late.

    I'm still staggered at how the media and inside the beltway crew portrays the 70% not in favor of the mosque location. And then to read that stuff about the Arizona law being submitted by our own government to the UN as a smack against us for how we deal with human rights... It makes me livid.

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  25. Lady Red - I meant 'don't count' as in they simply don't matter.

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  26. More on Beck's rally: the crowd size has now been estimated by his staff at 500,000. And how many (like me) wanted to go but couldn't? The drumbeat grows louder...

    The Smithsonian called Beck on Saturday night and wanted mementos from the rally. At least they know history when they see it...

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  27. Geez lady red you're so gullible.

    The crowd was 87,000. So sayeth CBS news and so agreeth Charles Johnson.

    Yes, the same Charles Johnson who debunked the memo used by Dan Rather at CBS news.

    No, I am not providing links to either one.

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  28. Fay - CJ is an inspiration to me - he inspires me to be fair to people I disagree with; otherwise I might end up as crazy as he did. (See e.g. my comment in DWT's thread above).

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  29. lady red - if you want to do a first draft of the Powerpoint slide, I'll work on it with you - I can set up a shared document on Google Docs. Maybe we can popularize the "three bullet platform"...

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  30. Well I'm glad to hear that lewy, I'd hate to have to get a banning stick for the Table =))

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  31. Lewy, I'd love to work on a that project, but my time is really limited right now. Any volunteers, TCKTers? If you don't raise your hand, Fay will come after you with her cooking spoon...(at least it'll keep her away from the banning stick!) :))

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  32. lady red - I forwarded my own draft to you and the usual suspects.

    You can all edit the slide - and you can pass the ability to edit to others.

    This is something of an experiment; see how it works.

    Don't forget to view the "speakers notes" - the little icon bottom right. Three bullets, but lots of 'splainin' in the speaker's notes.

    Who knows maybe we can publish the TCKT Manifesto and take over the movement. :-t

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